So, the election happened...

I stayed up late, watching the returns come in.  I sat shocked, stunned, and rather terrified when I realized the results.  It was difficult not to be saddened by the evidence of so many people voting in fear and hate.
 As a country, we are fundamentally granted the right to believe as we like.  Though, if those beliefs hurt and demean other people, they may require some re-thinking.

People are NOT things.
Different does NOT equal bad or wrong.

More folks are going to need help, do what you can.  Little things do matter.

And now, a picture of my cat with a toy mouse on her head, as well as stuffies made for a friend's wedding a few years back, because adorable helps!

They are Forget Me Knots by Phoeny.

Knitting and making stuff pictures to grace the page soon!

I finished the dress in time

Even if we don't go out, I still dress up.  I think the dress turned out rather well.

And it glows beautifully!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

My house is full of bats and pumpkins and skulls and spiders.

Goodies have been made.

Lemon bark with toasted pumpkin seeds and worm cookies that stare back!

Later, there will be kabobs and fresh pretzel rolls.  There's pomegranates and chocolate chip cookies too.  Green tortilla chips with chunky salsa...and a vegetable platter because you really should eat your veggies.

I would totally share if I could!

Have a happy Halloween!

He followed me home. I can keep him right?

This is Spot.

I found Spot on a shelf in the Halloween section of Target.  I will admit, the first time I saw him amidst all the other skeletons, he was the one whose head I stopped to pet.  Then I realized there were other people standing there, regarding me oddly.  Of course, that likely had something to do with me treating a plastic, skeletal chameleon like a kitten in a pet store.  I stopped petting the cute inanimate critter and walked away to peruse the rest of their Halloween selection (which was quite good this year!).
But then we went back to Target for something....and he was still sitting on his shelf.  I scooped him up, announced to Husband that the chameleon was coming home with us and proceeded to carry him contentedly through the store.
Currently, he's part of the Halloween decorations.  When the decorations are put away, he will go back to sitting next to my computer, where I can scratch his happy little head with a smile on my face; much to the confusion of everyone else in the house.

More sewing than usual

The glow in the dark fabric I had to have is steadily becoming a dress.  Mostly from pattern pieces from Sew Many Dresses Sew Little Time as well as a pocket pattern from an old skirt pattern.

It still needs it's sleeves and neck facings...and to hang over night so I can hem it properly tomorrow.  The dress looks surprisingly well on considering the outrageousness of the print.  We'll have to see if it's a strictly Halloween piece once it's done.

I put together a choker necklace from buttons, ribbon, and some glow in the dark embroidery floss to go with the dress as well.

I also cobbled together a lovely gray wool skirt with black silk insets out of leftovers from the cloak I made Darling Son (which I still haven't gotten pictures of...so much hemming).  I loosely based it on the pencil skirt pattern from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual.

The skirt ends up being decidedly more 1930's looking with the modifications, which means it looks smashing with the sweater I finished.

The lovely Aiken sweater, whose second sleeve cuff took me a week to finish.  Why, you might ask, did it take me a week to knit an inch and a half of ribbed cuff?  I played yarn chicken....

 and lost.  I had to wait for the new ball of yarn to get here before I could finish it.  Then, in less than 45 minutes of far from strenuous knitting...I had a finished sweater.

The yarn is the beautiful Colrain by Valley Yarns/ Webs in the Burgundy colorway.  Sadly, it's been overcast so the lighting does not do the yarn justice.  This sweater fairly glows in sunlight, it's gorgeous.

But....because I had to wait for yarn, I needed to have another sweater on the needles.  So, now there is a Peregrine decently under way.

It's being done in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes superwash in the Oyster colorway.  I am sincerely thinking about making more of them, in lots of colors.

And then, then there was fabric purchase.  It isn't much.  It's not fancy.  But it is a fabric panel that has all my favorite Dr. Seuss books on it!

I had tried to buy it before, only to be told it was sold out.  I searched everywhere I could think of, and then searched for Dr. Seuss fabric in general...and the only place I could find even one panel was a lovely woman on Etsy (whose business card I've misplaced).  There may have been a sonic boom with the speed with which I placed the order.  I'm thinking I will piece it out and make a larger quilt top out of it.  I can't explain why, but this panel had to be mine.

I also made a...statement purchase, (which is supposed to be here tomorrow so I can't tell you how wonderful it is quite yet), from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs' Limited Edition section.  Nasty Woman seemed like a purchase that needed to be made.  I'm thinking I will get Palmyra next month.  Smell wonderful and do some good?   Count me in!

It's October!

It's really been non-stop since mid-September.  I finished Petrichor, have been wearing it daily since I wove in the ends, and have yet to take a photo of it completed.
We went to a local parade to, apparently, have candy flung at us.

My eldest turned twenty-one.

My son made his first pie from scratch, video game inspired butterscotch cinnamon custard:

Complete with fresh cinnamon whipped cream:

I finished my Cheshire Noir shawl:

And I finally made my husband his birthday cake, German chocolate of course:

But I may have been over enthusiastic with the frosting, as it apparently squished cake layers:

Husband and I spent  some time at the Hoptober Freshtival which was fun, though got a bit more crowded than was really comfortable later in the afternoon, so we left after a few hours.  I'm hoping that maybe they will have a bigger venue next year.  It did seem as though there were way more people than anticipated as the food vendors, as well as some of the breweries started running out of supplies by mid-afternoon (it had started at noon and was scheduled to go till 8pm).

Amidst all of this frolicking and pastry eating, the rest of my knitting and all of my sewing(none of which are good travel projects), have been left to languish just a bit.
I'll leave you with the cross stitch  I finished fairly recently, bought at JoAnns on a whim:

And now I need to knit all the sweaters

It started when the Pandamonium hat made it's debut on Ravelry, causing me to contemplate colorwork hats...so I remembered that I wanted to get some dk or worsted yarn to make an adult version of The Hedgehog Hats to match the mittens kit I have which meant digging the kit out of my knitting stash bins so I could find yarn colors for the hat that match the mittens.
This led me to unearthing the yarns for:
The Taming of the Shrug, (Flaming Kate model of course):

The Smithfield sweater, (modified a bit):

The Berkeley sweater, so simple and elegant:

A sweater worth of lovely sport weight, superwash wool in a burgundy red that I decided needed to become a  Blaster:

And enough yarn in a similar color, though different gauge and base is on it's way to make an Aiken
Why yes, I do have a knit designer crush on Andi Satterlund.  Can you really disagree?  Her stuff is wonderful!
Really, this is what happens when I start getting close to finishing a sweater.  Petrichor is close to being done.  I keep trying it on, which slows down the knitting process, but makes me happy and less put off about knitting sleeves.

The first sleeve is actually complete now, but it's been over cast and I haven't gotten a better picture.
I also dug out a long hibernating work in progress, that I neglected to take pictures of.  Honestly, it looked so sad, I didn't have the heart to document it's neglect.  What it will be, is a lovely Viola in black with deep, jade green edges...once I finish work on it.
The fabric for my Halloween dress arrived too.

The pattern pieces for the dress I'm going to make out of it are all drafted and cut out.  It now means stopping knitting long enough to cut out the fabric and start sewing!

Bits and pieces

I've finished a couple of pairs of socks.  The first pair has been on the needles long enough, that other than remembering it was bought from Knit Picks, I don't remember the colorway or base.  It was an alpaca blend hand paint sock yarn from years ago.

The second set is a pair of Rose City Rollers, in Hawthorne sock, Rose city colorway.  I really love working with the Hawthorne base yarn.  The projects turn out beautifully.

I've also managed to find a pair of plain, black kitten heels and a pair of black cat eye sunglasses that actually fit!  Thank you Pin Up Girl!

Essie also just put out a gel nail polish line with a color called Spiked with Style.  It's my favorite deep blood red.

Over the last year, I have also managed to find three red lipsticks that really are wonderful.  Two are from Besame.  The darker is Red Velvet and the other is Victory Red.  The third is my day to day red, and I adore it.  It's from Shea Moisture in Red Rose. 

What all of this actually means is that I am slowly but surely getting together a proper wardrobe of things that go together, not just things that pique my interest at the moment that I never wear/use.  Knowing that I can grab something out of my closet, swipe on some lipstick, and look like I have my act together, (even if that act is gothic June Cleaver meets Ms. Frizzle), is reassuring and enables me to focus on other things that need taking care of.

First of three complete

My Keavy is done! I cast off the last sleeve stitches midday yesterday. I didn't decrease the sleeves as much as the pattern called for, as well as halving the number of collar rounds.

It still needs to be blocked.  The fit is really wonderful as is, but the cat tried to sleep on it at least once so a bath is required.

I've made a few inches progress on Petrichor  since yesterday afternoon, even with repeated rippings to get the correct number of stitches picked up at the collar.

I am adoring the bigger needles and heavier gauge yarn projects right now.  As much as I could really use the socks so close to being done, the obvious progress on the sweaters is just what I needed.

I also got the autumn embroidery piece for the entry traced out.  It took me ages to pick the floss colors for this one.  I haven't made much progress yet, but the complicated parts are out of the way.

I may have also come across some glow in the dark fabric today....and may have decided I needed to make a dress out of it.  I'm actually proud of my restraint.  It's the time of year that makes me think I need all the things...to stock up of course...for when snowflakes, hearts, and bunnies take over the displays.  Halloween really is my happy place.

If I concentrate...

If I don't get distracted by all the shiny, sometimes, I actually get things done.  

Like the first embroidered dishtowel in a new set from this set

And the fact that I have only knit on one project for the last week means Keavy is almost done!

The photo is from a couple of days ago, as of right now, the first sleeve is four inches from completion.  Admittedly, the sleeve black hole has me casting desirous glances at this yarn:

Yarn which was recently obtained for the shawl Hestia. I have not let myself wind it up, or even keep it in plain sight.  Winding the first skein is the reward for finishing the first sleeve.

Life is not all needlework though.  We've been hitting the farmers market most weekends.  A couple of weeks ago we bought cabbages. The largest was bigger than my head!  

That's a quart mason jar (with tea) for scale.  The cabbage was a solid ten pounds and quite delicious.  There's been lettuce and tomatoes and herbs from the potted plants in the backyard...I keep forgetting to take pictures before eating them.

Now back to knitting sleeves...while visions of lovely shawls and pineapples dance in my head.

Time to Knit Sweaters!

Fall has started to bat her eyelashes at us.  The mornings call for a sweatshirt or light jacket, with twilight (arriving earlier every evening) comes thoughts of wool socks for chilly toes. (At least for the last few days; I do hope it continues.)
Taking my cues from said weather; I decided I would like new woolies before the cooler season gets here, instead of trying to knit them at super speed while shivering.

The maroon one in progress is Petrichor, the oatmeal tweedy one is Keavy, and the quite green cabled pretty is Corsica.  All of them are thicker yarns at a larger gauge, so they should finish up fairly quickly, provided I continue to work on them consistently.

Summer has been busier than I expected, enjoyable yes, but busy.  I admit though, I am tickled that Halloween plans are starting to be discussed in earnest and that socks will have to be introduced back into my wardrobe.

My cat is incredibly excited as well.